Until 1808, Nanda Devi was considered the world’s highest mountain. It is a two-peak massif forming a long ridge, with the west summit higher than the east, and is often called the twin peaks of Nanda Devi. It is notable for its steep terrain, often likened to K2 in difficulty. It was in 1993 that our team was granted a one-time permit to scale the peak.
Ahead of Joshimath lay a small village called Reni, which was the roadhead for the expedition. To our dismay, we found no marked routes to the base camp, as treks into the area had long been banned. Locals told us there were two ways in: a gradual climb along the Rishi Ganga river, or a route over the Dharansi Pass.
My group of four set out for the pass. We climbed on, only to find the pass too steep for a team as large as ours. We held on to whatever we could, a tuft of grass, a clump of rock and, most of all, prayer.
Owing to its comparative safety, we then chose the river route to the base camp instead. As no one had ventured into the area for years, there were no bridges across the river, and crossing it proved a logistical nightmare. Where the water was shallow, we waded across; elsewhere, we built makeshift bridges by felling trees and laying them over the water. With the route unclear, we had to follow instinct, which led to a string of minor mishaps. Several members broke their teeth in falls on the moraines, while others picked up cuts and bruises along the way. It often seemed as if we would never find our path.
We had been briefed by our team leader about the possibility of finding remnants of the American nuclear device. But we had no idea what to look for. However, we did find some aluminum boxes and lots of cable used by the Army for communication. But as the youngest member of the team, my focus was on the climb, and the discovery of the boxes and cable meant little to me at the time.
The route beyond camp 3 lay over slabs of rock. We found old ropes wedged between the rocks, along with some rusted carabiners. We had read about members of a Parachute Regiment expedition who had died on the higher slopes. We found some bones among the rocks.
Camp 4 sat on a ledge. We could pitch only one tent, and even that required building a platform out of flat rocks. These tasks sound simple, but at that altitude, and in our state of exhaustion, each was a massive effort.
We spent a day at camp 4, opening the route ahead and fixing ropes on a vertical rock stretch of about ten metres, a task that took the whole day. We did not have time to establish camp 5, so after fixing the rope up to the site, we returned to camp 4.
The same night, we set off for the summit at around 2.30am. We climbed for almost the whole day, and all five of us reached the top between 4.35pm and 6pm.
Nanda Devi has seen only a fraction of the ascents of Mount Everest, which has been summited by more than 6,000 people. It is considered one of the greatest mountaineering achievements in the Himalayas.
Colonel Swaroop, SM (retd), an Arjuna awardee, has climbed Mount Everest twice and led ski expeditions to the North and South Poles.
